1st Light Mechanized Division (France)

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The 1st Light Mechanized Division (French: 1re Division Légère Mécanique, 1re DLM) was a French Army formation during World War II. It was the first of the armoured divisions of the French Cavalry. Preparations to create such a unit were made from 1931. Slowly the 4th Cavalry Division was mechanised; in 1936 the mechanised components, though still not fully equipped, were given a separate identity, while confusingly 4th Cavalry continued to exist, giving the false impression the armoured division was a completely new force.

The name of the unit is most often translated with "Light Mechanized Division", but a better translation, both from a linguistical as a military point of view, would be "Mechanized Light Division". In French the adjective mécanique qualifies légère, not the other way around; and this makes also sense in a tactical way: "light" here is a synonym of "mobile". While any "mechanised" division was "light", not every "light" division was "mechanised": motorised infantry divisions without tracked vehicles would also be called "Light Divisions".

Another confusion often caused by the category indication is the mistake to assume that such units were "lightly" equipped: in fact most heavy equipment was concentrated into the motorised units which were thus the most powerful of the French Army. The 1re DLM used the AMR 35 as a light skirmisher and the Somua S-35 and Hotchkiss H35 as battle tanks, though the latter vehicle was not really suited for this role as its armament was too weak. The artillery and infantry components were fully motorised; part of the organic infantry was also mechanised, using half tracks. In organisation a DLM thus closely resembled the contemporaneous German Panzerdivision of the Panzerwaffe, though it would be more "tank-heavy", not so much the Leichte Kavalleriedivisionen of the German Cavalry, which units in the thirties still were only partly mechanised.

During the Battle of France in May 1940 the division contained the following units:

  • 1 Mechanized Light Brigade
  • 2 Mechanized Light Brigade
  • 74 Artillery Regiment

It was an active division which existed during peacetime.

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